Donald Tusk the President of the European Council, delivers his speech in the debate about the agreement to return migrants and asylum seekers from Greek islands to Turkey, in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, April 13 2016 | Patrick Seeger/EPA

Donald Tusk says EU migration crisis is ‘never-ending’

Council president defends refugee deal with Turkey, but admits it is ‘not ideal.’

STRASBOURG — European Council President Donald Tusk called the migration crisis a “never-ending story” for the EU and warned that there was no “Holy Grail” solution for tackling it.

“We are faced with a tenuous, perpetual and multi-dimensional effort,” Tusk said Wednesday in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “In fact, something like a never-ending story. The solutions we are putting into practice are not ideal and will not end our work.”

Nevertheless, Tusk defended the agreement reached by the EU and Turkey last month to stop the flow of migrants arriving to Europe, saying it had helped avoid a total breakdown of the bloc’s Schengen internal border system.

Under the agreement, all migrants arriving in Greece would be sent back to Turkey and one Syrian refugee would be resettled for each Syrian returned, up to a ceiling of 72,000. After Turkey and Greece passed legislation to implement the agreement earlier this month, Europe started deporting a few hundred migrants from Greece to Turkey.

“Everything depends on how it will be implemented,” Tusk said of the deal, acknowledging that many EU political leaders had misgivings about it. “I share some of these doubts too. They can only be dispelled by putting the solutions as they were agreed into practice.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also sought to reassure parliamentarians about the EU migration strategy, saying he wanted “our asylum system to be the best in the world.”

Juncker spoke a week after the Commission presented proposals to reform the EU’s Dublin regulation, which requires that refugees register in the country where they first arrive. These proposals also include an automatic refugee relocation scheme that would be put into effect when arrival of migrants reach a maximum capacity.

Several MEPs weighed in on the EU’s migration actions. Gianni Pittella, president of the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group, said the EU-Turkey deal was “not a perfect agreement by any means” but that it had been made necessary because of the actions of some European countries.

“Our hand was forced by the selfishness and the closed attitude of the EU,” Pittella said.

“The conclusion is that we have to tackle the problem together with Turkey,” Weber said. “Europe needs safe borders but it mustn’t become a fortress.”

Other MEPs expressed reservations about the feasibility of the deal and warned the Council and Commission against leaving the migration crisis in the hands of Turkey, after recent news reports revealed that the country was pushing refugees back into Syria.

“It is shameful and goes against international law,” said Guy Verhofstadt, president of the centrist Alliance of Liberals and Democrats party. “Instead of outsourcing the refugee problem to autocratic leaders like [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan, we need to get our act together.”

Others like Sylvie Guillaume from the S&D said the deal “poses a lot of logistical difficulties” and “doesn’t seem in line with the guarantee on paper,” adding that other migrant routes had opened up, including Libya and Ukraine.

“How de we assess the implementation on the Turkish side?” asked Pavel Telička, a Czech MEP from the ALDE party.

In his closing remarks to parliamentarians, Tusk played down expectations about the EU’s controversial schemes for relocating 160,000 refugees across the bloc, a central pillar of the Commission’s migration strategy.

“Relocation is and will be one of the key elements of the European solution to the crisis,” he said, adding that “in this aspect we need solidarity.” But Tusk said “we would make a mistake if it became the main tool of our policy, because it would be a simple incentive for further, even greater migration flows.”

Tusk also said that while he supported the EU priority to set up a European border and coast guard, he believed that making it operational this year — a goal of the Commission — was “not possible.”

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paleocon666

Of course there is a “Holy Grail” solution to the “crisis”, but they, the socialdemocrats, don’t have the balls to implement it.

Posted on 4/13/16 | 12:02 PM CET

xx

Who manipulates all these immigrants? Who tells them EU is like a cash cow, just come and enjoy? Where is the source of this circus?

Posted on 4/13/16 | 1:37 PM CET

Rob

Seems that unconvenient comments are quite often deleted on this forum from different commentators

Posted on 4/13/16 | 4:51 PM CET

Rafael K.

@Rob
Yes, well observed. This is what we call freedom of speech and press. Many sacked journalists have had similar experiences when writing about certain things too openly or not sharing the views of the media company they were working for.
But apparently we are living in a democracy

Posted on 4/13/16 | 4:57 PM CET

Venom

“xx

Who manipulates all these immigrants? Who tells them EU is like a cash cow, just come and enjoy? Where is the source of this circus?”

Soro’s comes to mind!!

Posted on 4/13/16 | 5:26 PM CET

Filippo

Manfred Weber: europe needs safe borders but it mustn’t become a fortress.
Translation: 30 seconds after the emotion for the Cologne facts will be gone, we will restart stuffing the continent with desperates disposable to work in our industries at slavery conditions, until european economy and society will become a big Albania, so that our industries, the only thing we ever cared about, won’t be forced to move to China because the real China will be here. In the meanwhile we will keep making believe we are getting a hard stance

Posted on 4/13/16 | 5:45 PM CET

Pete

I agree with Tusk: “we would make a mistake if it (relocation of migrants within the EU) became the main tool of our policy, because it would be a simple incentive for further, even greater migration flows.”

Posted on 4/15/16 | 12:29 AM CET

Joe

Fact is that Europe does indeed need to become a fortress. A well-defended fortress. If not, it will be overrun in the next few decades. If we take a step back and look at Europe’s neighbors to the south, we see a Malthusian disaster in the making. Take Niger for instance. Its population grew from less than 8 million in 1990, to almost 18 million today. If nothing changes, it will be 70 million by 2050. The entire continent of Africa will see a rise in population from 1 billion in 2010, to 2.5 billion by 2050. The resources of most countries will be overstretched, resulting in revolts, civil wars and mass displacement. Europe has a tough choice to make. It can either opt for survival and close its borders, or opt for the idealistic option, face a growing tide of migrants, which will eventually overwhelm the European population and its institutions, putting an end to European civilization as we know it. Listening to people like Guy Vester-something from Belgium, I’m afraid the latter will be the case.

Posted on 4/16/16 | 1:58 AM CET

Rafael K.

@Joe
absolutely right.
Unfortunately my earlier comment I placed here was deleted a few times (probably was too much truth and provocative) but the situation is quite dramatic.

According to various studies and forecasts conducted by the UN or some other institutions and think tanks we could be facing migrations or worse than biblical proportions.
Apparantly worldwide there are about 800 Mio. people potentially willing to migrate due to various reasons such as hunger, war, prosecution, etc.
Although all of it is sad to see and also the Western civilizations have contributed a lot to it through weapon deliveries, destabilization of entire regions as well as supporting African warlords or dictators, the EU will not be able to cope with the expected invasion in the next years and decades to come

A friend of mine was suggesting escape to New Zealand or Siberia 🙂

Posted on 4/18/16 | 12:19 PM CET

Jim Porter

OK, it is long known that demographics, poverty and wars are always driving migration. But now practically all migrants, who have little money and few ties, do know about the wealth and opportunities of Europe, even if they have never seen it before. Why? Coz they do have the Internet on their phones where a lot of web sites are reported to have promised speedy asylum procedures in Sweden, Germany or France, ‘free Blonde girls and accommodation in luxury hotels’ there. Surely, in such conditions it is extremely complicated to stop immigrants’ influx to Europe. So, the EU migration crisis is ‘never-ending’ till our leaders do not support those who call to withdraw all illegals from European countries, reduce legal immigration to 10,000 people per year, deny automatic immigration rights to spouses, and give priority to own citizens in matters of housing and employment.